What Makes Up a Procurement Team?

A procurement team is a specialized team of professionals that provide a multitude of services to all involved or interested parties involved in procuring goods and supplies necessary for project execution. It is usually a separate department that reports directly to the project manager or business owner. Within the scope of a procurement team, there are several broad functional areas: Purchasing Manager, Supply Chain Manager, Enterprise Solutions Manager, Marketing Manager, Supply Chain Analyst, Engineering Manager, Financial Manager, Documentation Manager, and Support Services Manager. Each of these areas has its unique purpose and requirement to execute a company’s overall objectives properly.

Understanding Roles

How much do you understand about the roles in a purchasing Team? We at NLPA have commonly gotten questions like “To whom should Purchasing report?”

Questions like these have led us to write the article, What Is Supply Chain Management, Anyway?

To whom the purchasing function reports can be different from company to company, and that’s OK.

To simplify it, if the company sees Purchasing’s primary role as delivering cost savings, the company generally positions Purchasing under Finance, reporting to the Chief Financial Officer. Suppose the company sees Purchasing’s primary role as supporting operations (by assuring supply continuity, reducing risk, etc.). In that case, the company generally positions Purchasing under Operations/Supply Chain Management, reporting to the Chief Operations Officer or VP of Supply Chain.

As another generalization, in manufacturing, we see Purchasing more commonly reporting to Operations/Supply Chain Management, and in service, industries Purchasing more commonly reporting to Finance.

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Recommended Reading

• SPSM vs. CPO Suite
• The Procurement Promotion That You Lost (But Didn’t Even Know That You Were Considered For)
• Procurement Interview: Questions
• Improving Your Procurement Team’s Skills Requires This Commonly Forgotten Element
• Are Your Purchasing Job Descriptions Outdated?

NLPA Learning Recommends

• Are You Chief Procurement Officer Material?
• How to Take Charge of Your Procurement Career
• Measuring The Impact of Procurement Training
• Millennials in Procurement
• Procurement Leader vs. Purchasing Manager

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